Top of the Gulf Regatta 2010 - down to the wire on the last day

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 4 May 2010 In the end, it all came down to the last race for the IRC Racing class today, with Evolution Racing (Ray Roberts) and Ichi Ban (Matt Allen) going in to the last day with 4 and 7 points respectively, after ‘drops’. Ichi Ban threw everything into the first two windward-leeward races, won them both and dragged the score back level. The last race for the series was the re-sail of Saturday’s race #2, a 'long' race to a turning mark off Koh Klet Kaeo, round Koh Rang Kwian and back home, 14 nm. Predictably enough, Evolution Racing made her time on the long legs, finishing in 1h 11m 19s with Ichi Ban following along 17 minutes later. Not close enough – 2 minutes back on handicap - so Ray Roberts gets the biscuits by one slender point.

From on board Ichi Ban, tactician Michael Spies said, 'we really gave it everything the last two days – there’s no meat left on the bone now. We did well to get the first two races today, but on the longer course, when we put the bow down we were getting up into the 8-9 kts range while Ray would have been getting 11s and 12s. But we are very pleased with our performance for the four days.'

There was everything to play for in the Platu class as well. After a disastrous day yesterday, The Fox’s comfortable 7-point cushion evaporated. Heemskerk scored 5-2-5 from three races, with the 2 turning into a DSQ in the Protest Room, and all of a sudden The Ferret (Scott Duncanson) was back in front, leading the Coronation Cup by just one point. The Ferret was called OCS in the first race, came back, and then went right while everyone else went left. A bit of hard work, and The Ferret came down the last run in third place behind The Fox (winning) and Nayaya – squeezing past the SMU crew in the last few yards of the race to take second and level the score at 17 points all.

At the start of the second race The Ferret seemed to get stuck in traffic on the start line, but clawed back the distance on The Fox who had started in clean air at the boat end. 'They had maybe a few more kilos on the rail,' said Foxy tactician David Yourieff, 'and got the height, and a bit of speed through the chop'. With the two leaders out front, it turned into an energetic race, with tacking and gybing putting crew work at a premium. The Fox snapped her vang - 'yes, we pushed the boat hard, and broke it,' added Yourieff. Scott Duncanson said, 'we knew we could get the height and the speed, so we sailed a conservative race until we had chipped our way back to the front and then sat on it for the rest of the race.'
IRC 2 class turned into a whitewash for the Royal Thai Navy 1 team, sailing a Farr MRX, and scoring seven bullets from sever caes, allowing them the ultimate luxury of dropping a 1st place. El Coyote (Gary Baruley) and Dynamite (Brad Kirk) followed along obediently behind on the score sheet. David Bell’s Magic Roundabout distinguished herself by sailing the first couple of days with a litter of stowaway kittens on board, but the Race Committee declined to protest them on grounds of an incorrect crew list.

Multihull evangelist Henry Kaye (Thor) dominated the Multihull class, just as we have come to expect from recent regional regattas, finishing 8.5 points clear of Bob Garner’s Blade Runner. The competition for second place was a good deal closer, with only 2.5 points separating place s 2 to 5 in the division.

In true performance handicapping style, those winning races in the Cruising class at the beginning of the regatta weren’t necessarily winning at the end – and vice versa. Tetsuo Ongino’s Melissa came out on top with 10 points from five races (with one drop), but there were three boats (Reef Knot, Kififiki, Souay 1) right behind on 13 points, so results were calculated on countback.

It was a bright and breezy event all round, even if there were some hiccups in communications. RO Jerry Rollin was in charge on the water, but a ringmaster on shore would have helped - this is an Asian regatta, and subject to expedient changes in planning (they always work out in the end). It is not the Farr 40 Worlds.

Tonight's closing dinner and prizegiving will cater to a crowd of tired and sunburned sailors who have just had four days of good yacht racing. It's that kind of a regatta. Take a look at the pictures...

Results at: www.topofthegulfregatta.com

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